Level: moderate to advanced(no explanations of tools given)
Features used: filters, selection tools, fill tools, layer blending modes, patience
Time: erm... quite long
XCF: Sadly it ended up lost forever :-\ lol
Results:
click here for actual size
click here for actual size
click here for actual size
Alternate results using ellipses:
click here for actual size
click here for actual size
I must extend thanks to mangadude5760 for their tutorial on making a C4D like render with GIMP and for inspiring me to have a play with this idea.
OK, here I am, itching to post a tutorial about SOMETHING for quite a while now but mostly everything I could think of I couldn't be bothered with. So anyway, not being able to confidently use blender yet and not being a millionaire able to buy something such as C4D, I set off into GIMP to see if I could produce something of comparable quality to an abstract render created by a 3D modeller. The results, in my opinion, are just as usable as a proper render although lacking some of the 3 dimensionality found in other work. For my purposes though, and until I learn Blender, 2D suits me fine.
Right, to work!
Create a new image, 600x600px was my choice, square for a reason yet not essential.
I suggest that you now select one palette from the palette editor to work from so that all your colours are similar enough to use the render as a background to something later. I chose the “GrayViolet” palette and chose all of my colours from there. You only really need two or three colours.
Fill the background layer a dark shade. Now create a new transparent layer and create a rectangular(or you could try elliptical) selection in either the left or right half of it. Fill this with a lighter shade from the palette. Select none(Ctrl+shift+A) and duplicate the layer a good 4 or 5 times.
Now we will start deforming each layer a little with the Perspective and rotate tools. With the perspective tool, start with one of the layers(you may want to hide the others so you can see what you are doing) and push two of the rectangle's corners towards the centre of the image.
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Repeat this for the other layers until you have something like below, you may need to rotate some of the layers and move them:
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Now set all of the layers' blending modes to “overlay”. Next duplicate some of the layers you have just made and rotate them to other places around the 'circle' changing a couple of their blending modes to “multiply”.
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Duplicate all of the layers. Hide all of the originals and the original background layer. Now right click on the layers and choose “merge visible layers” choosing “clipped to image” when asked. We now have a replica of the abstract so far but on one layer.
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Make all the other layers visible again and hide the merged one. Get the “select contiguous regions” tool(Z) and set its mode to “add to current selection”. Now go through each layer in turn(excluding the background layer and the merged layer) and create a selection of all the shapes so you end up with an outline. Now go to the paths tab and click “selection to path”. The reason is that the selection may be useful again later if you continue to adapt the results.
On the layer which we merged together, use the selection menu to shrink the selection by 1px(Select>Shrink). Invert the selection(Ctrl+I or Select>Invert). Clear it(Ctrl+K or Edit>Clear). Duplicate it(leaving a master copy for later) and bring the now transparent merged layer to the top. Select none.
Use “Filters>Map>Map object” to turn the abstract into a sphere. The orientation is up to you and I suggest that you do play with it. Ensure that “Transparent background” is checked on the options tab.
Right click on the sphere layer and choose “Alpha to selection”. Shrink it by 1px, invert it and clear it. This will remove the slight border from the sphere. Duplicate the sphere and hide the original.
On the visible top sphere layer, perform “Filters>Distorts>Polar coords”. Defaults should be fine. You will notice that when completed a white circle appears around the edges of the layer. Simply use the magic wand tool(Z) to select then clear it from the layer. Change the layer's blending mode to “hard light” and set its opacity to about 60%. Move it around until it is snugly inside your abstract 'circle' and move the layer down to somewhere in the middle of all the others so some of the other shapes are above it.
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Duplicate the master sphere layer again and bring the duplicate to the top. Now perform a “Filters>Map>Fractal Trace” on it. Play with the settings.
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Use the rectangular selection tool to select the parts of the fractal which are in random places and either move them to the central area of the layer or clear them.
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Move the fractal trace layer to the bottom so it is above the background yet below the shapes. Set it's blending mode as you want, for me “multiply” worked.
Duplicate the transparent shapes layer again(the one you mapped to a sphere). Rotate the layer and put it behind the polar coords layer. Apply “Filters>Blur>Motion blur” of type zoom and length about 20px. Set its blending mode to “multiply”. Again, adjust to your taste.
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Now duplicate the polar coords layer and move it to just above the motion blurred layer. Use “Filters>Artistic>Cubisim” and make the tile size quite large. Set the blending mode to “grain merge” and put the opacity quite far down(35% for me this time, 15% the previous attempt).
click here for actual size
That, thankfully, is it. I'm sure you could continue to adapt it and change it from here. My other results were better and have had some other things such as Iwarp and Neon edge detection applied to the final merged image. Hope this tut helps somebody and inspires people to expand on using GIMP to create their own abstract renders. I would love to hear C&C and see some people's results although I'm aware this is a long tut.
Chris :w:
